The present invention relates to a connector, particularly to a connector that enables a first circuit board having a first contact portion and a second circuit board having a second contact portion to be overlapped on each other to electrically connect the first contact portion and the second contact portion to each other.
As an exemplary connector used to connect two flat circuit boards that are overlapped on each other, JP 2005-122901 A discloses a connector for connecting a plurality of circuit conductors 2 arranged in a flexible printed circuit board (FPC) 1 with a plurality of flat conductors 4 in a flat cable 3 as shown in FIG. 16. This connector is composed of a connector body 5 and a plate member 6 that face each other so as to sandwich an overlap part where the FPC 1 and the flat cable 3 overlap. As shown in FIG. 17, the connector body 5 has a plurality of metallic penetrating pieces 7, while the plate member 6 has a plurality of receiving grooves 8 formed therein.
The flat cable 3 is placed on the surface of the FPC 1, and the connector body 5 and the plate member 6 are positioned with respect to the FPC 1 and the flat cable 3 such that the penetrating pieces 7 and the receiving grooves 8 separately correspond to the circuit conductors 2 of the FPC 1 and the flat conductors 4 of the flat cable 3. In this state, the penetrating pieces 7 of the connector body 5 are thrust into the overlap part where the FPC 1 and the flat cable 3 overlap, and accordingly, the circuit conductors 2 of the FPC 1 and the flat conductors 4 in the flat cable 3 are sheared by the penetrating pieces 7. Upon insertion of the penetrating pieces 7, sheared parts of the circuit conductors 2 and sheared parts of the flat conductors 4 come into contact with the metallic penetrating pieces 7. As a result, the circuit conductors 2 of the FPC 1 and the flat conductors 4 of the flat cable 3 are electrically connected via the penetrating pieces 7.
If, however, the FPC 1 and the flat cable 3 are overlapped in a wrong order, i.e., if the FPC 1 is placed on the surface of the flat cable 3, even when the penetrating pieces 7 of the connector body 5 are thrust into the overlap part where the FPC 1 and the flat cable 3 overlap, the circuit conductors 2 of the FPC 1 and the flat conductors 4 in the flat cable 3 may fail to establish their electrical connections.
In particular, when two circuit boards having similar shapes are overlapped and connected to each other, it becomes easy to mistake the order of overlapping the circuit boards.